That's an expensive 3 grams...

"For TRD, how close is now too close? “NASCAR’s scale weighs a couple of grams heavy, so it’s to our favor. So I think out best-case scenario is we stay at least two grams north of the minimum,” Wilson said before the start of Saturday night’s race."

Seems to me like TRD knew what it was doing.

MWR cautious with Bowyer engines

"So we went and scrubbed all of the paperwork on every single engine, not just in the primary cars, but also in the spares and the backups."

TRD has this stuff written down, so even if Gibbs didn't catch it or know of it, TRD did. TRD will probably pay the crew chief's fine. I do not see the penalty being lowered much in the appeals process. MAYBE the crew suspension will get shortened or done away with, but there will still be a huge hit in points and $$$.

NASCAR needs to make sure that no one plays around with this. They caught one on it, and they can reasonably think there are others doing it from the same organization. The penalty will hit hard to reflect the fact that the #20 probably wasn't the only car racing with a light rod. There is only one car on the grid that could get away with simply being told "don't do this again".

 

It was only 1 con rod. This sounds more like poor engine building than it does an effort to cheat.

The Penalty is political and bad politics at that. No one wants to see Toyota dominate NASCAR week in week out. Coach Gibbs has been crushed and has potentially lost an entire season.

Sad.

 

+1 to all.

As I mentioned above, my NASCAR following buddies are convinced Toyota was getting a little big for their boots and the others were starting to whine to the powers. I don't follow it enough to have an idea either way, but just one rod a little underweight doesn't, to me at least, warrant the harshness of the penalties.

More like they were going to get them for *something*, just happened to be a light rod, which really isn't any advantage. If it had been all 8, then sure, throw 'em out completely.

Cheers,
Ian

 

What hypocrites the idiots running Nascar have become. Making a huge deal out of the connecting rods, but they condone, and encourage the racing to be a "contact" sport, at 200 miles per hour? Sooner or later, that type of racing will result in an entire car going into the stands, and the loss of life and injuries will be tragic. Nascar got off light the Saturday of the Daytona 500, when only parts of the car flew into the stands. It was interesting watching the NASCAR press conference that Saturday evening, more about what they said, and didn't say; the fence would be repaired, the Daytona 500 would be run, but nothing about taking care of the serious injuries to the fans, including a child in critical condition. Indeed, one of the networks a few days later had a detailed story about the fact that at most major sporting events, signs are posted that the promoters are NOT liable for loss or injuries. But again, NASCAR encourages the good ole boys, to have it out, on the track. Attend at your own risk.

 

attend at your own risk applies in all forms of motorsport.

 

NASCAR spends huge $$$ on safety there...

How did you know the Speedway didn't take care of the injured? Yes, they have no liability to, but most speedways do anyway.